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Welcome to the grading & discussion thread for Lost 5x07: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham".
[highlight]***SPOILERS AHEAD***[/highlight]

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

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"Locke's fateful mission off the island as Jeremy Bentham is revealed."

This episode and "316" were written at the same time by executive producers Lindelof and Cuse. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" was originally meant to be aired first, but the order was switched because Lindelof thought it would be "cool". - Wikipedia

I can't decide between 'excellent' and 'above average', so I'll go with 'above average'. It was one hell of a ride, but it felt rushed for an episode of Lost and a lot of the story was just glossed over even if you could say that we got what we needed. The life and death of Jeremy Bentham was too quick.

I expected this episode to be completely in the past, showing us what happened to Locke, I didn't think we would see him and the Ajira people on the Island, but I was pleasantly surprised.

So much is going on, there is a war forming indeed. Jack is on Ben's side, and Locke is on Widmore's side. I think Widmore is the good guy anyway, at least as good as you can get comparing him and Ben. It will be interesting to see what Locke does to Ben in the next episode.

I think maybe because he just wants to be in control and really hated Locke cause Ben wants to lead the others.

- Where and when did the second plane crash happen?

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Looking at the state of that station, and the fact that no one is there, and the fact that the Oceanic people flashed away, I am guessing the plane landed in "present time" So Locke and Ben and Lupitus and Sun are in the present time, while the others are time traveling. But for all I know they are all in the same time, i dunno.

- Who was Matthew Abaddon really, and will we learn more about him?

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Well, apparently he can die, heh. I am guessing he was maybe on the island too for a while with Widmore at some point.

- People were mentioning the camera's focus on Locke's toes. Is there really any significance to that?

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My guess, nah

- Why did Locke have to kill himself anyway?

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To be a proxy for John's dad, that's what Hawking said.

- What was up with jack's breakdown? He acted like he's been visited by Locke repeatedly over the last three years or something like that?

Like I said in the commentary I think Ben had to make sure Ben died with the least amount of physical damage. A broken neck from hanging might have presented a problem.

I can see when they meet again and Locke confronts him about killing him and Ben says "I did it for yoooou Joooohn. You wouldn't want to be walking around with your head flopping around would you?"

- What was up with Jack's breakdown? He acted like he's been visited by Locke repeatedly over the last three years or something like that.

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Well, after last weeks episode and the giving of his only son (3:16), we were seeing symbolism of Locke having second thoughts and asking that the cup passes from him. Nonetheless, the Island's will be done.

What a great hour of television. I really liked the format of the episode and Terry O'Quinn gave a knockout performance. It was nice seeing Walt again and all of Jack's visits with the island folks were good. Nice car crash sequence. Poor Helen though. And poor Abbandon.

Could smell Ben killing Locke a mile away but the scene was still effective. Don't know who to trust between him and Widmore. I like that we have a new group of survivors and they are in the present while some of the Five are in the past. One thing I'd like to know though...did Frank remember the way off the island?